Tennis great to stand for Bennelong

Tennis great John Alexander is trying again to win Liberal party preselection, this
time in former Prime Minister John Howard's old seat of Bennelong.
He is one of four candidates vying to run against star Labor MP Maxine McKew, who
snatched the northern Sydney seat from Mr Howard at the last federal election in
2007.
Earlier this year, Mr Alexander unsuccessfully sought Liberal Party preselection for
former party leader Brendan Nelson's North Shore seat of Bradfield.
This time around, he is up against Mark Chan and Melanie Matthewson, who both have
finance backgrounds, and businessman Steven Foley.
NSW Liberal Party state director Mark Neeham said the party was very keen to win
back the seat.
"Our candidate will be working hard in the local community and be ready for an
election whenever Labor decides to call it," he said in a statement.
The preselection will take place on December 16.
Meanwhile, the NSW Liberal Party received six nominations for the top two positions
on its Senate ticket, including current senators Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and Bill
Heffernan.
Others to nominate are George Bilic, Victoria McGahey, David Miles and Oliver Yates
in the preselection run-off to be held on December 12.
Sitting Liberal members Tony Abbott (Warringah) and Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar) were
not challenged for preselection.
Sussan Ley (Farrer), Louise Markus (Macquarie), and Joanna Gash (Gilmore) were also
the only nominations for their seats.
Endorsement meetings will be held in the coming weeks, the state party said on Friday.